


you're the in between

by tvprince



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Nonbinary Character, Other, Trans Character, abuse implied, mentions of hatake, nonbinary abe, trans girl mihashi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 21:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6130498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvprince/pseuds/tvprince
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They appeared like a flash in Ren’s mind, as if the sidewalk lights had somehow illuminated a path from her eyes to this stranger’s.  No, not a stranger, not really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you're the in between

**Author's Note:**

> i wasnt sure whether to post this bc its so short but. i never post Anythgin so why not
> 
> a tumblr prompt drabble for 'send me a ship and i'll write soemthign based on the next song that comes on shuffle'
> 
> "stranger" by goldfrapp

They appeared like a flash in Ren’s mind, as if the sidewalk lights had somehow illuminated a path from her eyes to this stranger’s.  No, not a stranger, not really.  It was the catcher from her high school baseball team, the one she’d never been given the chance to join.  Her arm throbbed on instinct, a phantom pain at the memory of Hatake taking everything, _everything,_ away from her in the blink of an eye.  

The not-stranger—Abe Takaya—looked stockier than she remembered.  More grown-into their own body now that they had to be around twenty (they had been in the same year after all) and not a gangly teenager. Abe’s hair looked to have the same almost-scruffy, almost-fluffy look it did years ago, eyes just as sharp as she remembered and—oh she hadn’t realized she’d been staring, but now Abe was scrunching their eyebrows as if they weren’t quite sure whether to be confused on angry or something else.  Ren gulped a ragged breath and turned on a heel to duck into a thankfully nearby coffee shop.  She kept her eyes forward as she slid into an empty seat at a crumb-scattered table.  

It was weird to see Abe, weird to recognize them (well, maybe not so weird for that part), and it filled Ren with a burning she hadn’t acknowledged for years.  The fire of _what could have been_ and _what should have been_ and _what I will never get to know_.  Ren remembered going to the field on the first day, remembered wanting to see what she could never touch even _just once._ It was a weird, bitter nostalgia, an awkward conversation with the coach and the gathered team that, yes, she did play, but one look at the cast holding her elbow tight to her chest said enough.  She’d healed enough to get _angry_ about it, about Hatake.  It was only as fulfilling as regret could be, but it was something.  It was better than blaming herself like she did every day in high school when she caught glance of the baseball diamond, or when she watched the Nishiura Nine practice late, late into the night.

So absorbed in her thoughts, Ren didn’t notice the bell at the storefront tinkering, didn’t hear the footsteps near her small, dirty table, didn’t even _see_ the person hovering over her until they cleared their throat.  Her head snapped up and there was Abe Takaya, against all odds, hands in the pockets of their hoodie like they weren’t quite sure what to do with them otherwise.

“Mihashi Ren?” They asked after a beat, shifting from one foot to the other.  Abe looked nervous and… hopeful?  Ren blinked.

“Abe Takaya.”  It wasn’t a question.  Abe visibly relaxed at being identified, though Ren wasn’t quite sure what reason they had to be nervous in the first place.  It _was_ Ren who’d been staring so blatantly at Abe, not the other way around.

“Can I…?” Abe nodded down at the empty chair across Ren, ears a little pink.  Ren nodded, feeling a little lost, but the small upturn of Abe’s lips stapled her to the ground.  She let out a breath that wasn’t quite relieved, wasn’t quite sad, but found herself smiling as well.  Just a little.


End file.
